Data processing devices such as workstations or personal computers are or can be equipped with an audio card to provide audio input and output functions. Modern multi-media systems use such audio cards to support telephony services using a modem or a network connection rather than the traditional telephone network. Telephony functions using a modem can be either regular “analog”-telephone functions provided by a so-called voice modem, or telephony over data network using a modem or a network interface card to couple to data-networks, such as the Internet.
Today's multi-media workstations or personal computers (PC) support a wide variety of different complementary products to enhance these functions, such as loudspeakers, head-sets with microphones, etc. Nevertheless, in many environments, such as offices, it is often required to use a speaker for alerting (ringing the phone) and after connecting either a speaker phone mode for convenience or a handset to provide privacy of a phone call. As usual multi-media system providing telephone functions only use standard audio cards with a single (common) audio output, the user can either use speakers or a headset in the telephone environment. To select between either a headset and a loudspeaker an external switch-box is required. The user must remember to switch back to the speaker mode after the end of the call, to ensure that he can hear the ringing of the next call, depending on the relative sensitivities of the speaker and headset, a change of the volume setting may also be required.